Show Me Your Nails 2.0

[Tamara76]

Due to some technical glitches with the original Show Me Your Nails Thread, I am starting a new thread with @vegchililover78's blessing (She says "hello," by the way!).

Please share your nail looks, nail art and manicures!

...And don't forget to check out @Beadshopgirl's Nail Stamping Thread for stamping inspiration! ❤️  

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Nailed-It/The-Nail-Stamping-Thread/m-p/3328865

[WinglessOne]

To help with my 2022 goals to heal my battered cuticles, get back into a nail/cuticle care routine, and keep my nails covered at all times (even with just a base coat), I should start posting in this thread. I keep my nails short out of necessity and preference, so you’ll probably never see them longer than this. In fact, my right pinky nail is still too long; that one seems to grow faster than the others. 😄 

As I go through my Zoyas to replace the old brushes with the newer wide brush, I’m more tempted to wear them again. Someone asked what I do with the old brushes: I clean ‘em up with acetone and use them when I need more detailed application control. Sure, I could use “nail art” brushes for that, but the standard Zoya brush works well in tight spaces—for instance, with polishes that tend to flood my pinky cuticles if I use a wide brush, or when I’m doing nail art that doesn’t require a fine tipped brush. 

Currently wearing: 

Day 2 of manicure; left hand’s the same, except I swapped the order of Tabitha and Olivera. Pearly Seabed is 3 coats, everything else is 2 coats.

Notes: 

Spoiler

Kiko Milano New Power Pro Nail Lacquer, shade 220 Pearly Seabed - looks very antique olive gold from afar. Up close, you can better see the layers of gold and green glitter, along with random copper glitter. I used 3 coats for full opacity and maximum color layering. I have a weakness for polishes that evoke oceans and seas, and Pearly Seabed fits the bill. It’s one of the very few Kiko polishes I own. 

Zoya Olivera - one of my oldest Zoyas, maybe even the first Zoya I ever bought… would’ve been 2015 or 2016. I remember the first time I applied this, I was bummed because it just looked dark navy on my nails. But in different lighting, I noticed the subtle oil slick shift from blue to purple. I’ve loved it ever since. 

Zoya Edyta - looks smoky grey + almost black + silver shimmery in some lighting (like my photo’s), but other lighting brings out more of an olive shimmer. It rarely looks as olive on me as I’ve seen it look in some people’s photos. But it’s one of my favorite deep charcoal shimmer shades. 

Zoya Tabitha - a reliable, pearly, deep dark hunter green, and another of my oldest Zoyas—though not as old as Olivera. I remember when I bought this one: I was looking for a dark green with a pearl finish that performed well, to wear to a friend’s fairy forest themed wedding (I was a bridesmaid). I’ve used Tabitha many times as a base for ombre looks and nail art, and certain topper polishes look amazing over it. 

Previously wore: 

Day 3 of manicure, left hand. Daisy and Dancing Dragon are 3 coats, all others are 2 coats.

Notes: 

Spoiler

Smith & Cult Color Me Curious - this mustard shade's a bit brighter than my photo depicts (that nail was caught in a shadow). Brighter and less orange than Honey, but not as bright as Darcy. Very easy to work with for a yellow. I’ve had this polish for a year or 2, I think, but had only used it 2 or 3 times. I think the S&C brush keeps me from wearing it more often: it’s not terrible, but it annoys me. Also, the short wide shape of S&C bottles + length of brush stem = hard to use up the polish once it hits a certain level in the bottle. And I hate decorative brush caps that have to be removed before using the brush—and S&C’s is so big. But the polish itself is very nice. 

Zoya Honey - hmm, I think I forgot to post this and a couple other polishes in the hauls thread... I recently bought it. Note to self! Anyway, I've been stalking Londontown Lakur Bee's Knees, waiting for a good sale. I didn't jump on the brand's Valentine's Day sale because I'm optimistically holding out for a better deal. Meanwhile, I thought Zoya Honey might be close enough to Londontown Bee's Knees to keep me happy for a while. I'm still buying Bee's Knees if/when the price is right for me, and then I can do a direct in-person comparison. But Honey is a very nice marigold that applies easily. 

Zoya Darcy - I’m always surprised by this shade's decent 2-coat coverage, without all the usual visible streaky lines that happen with yellows. I do tend to use thicker coats of this than I would of other shades, though. Darcy shows off the ridges on my left middle nail. I don’t always mind the look of ridges, so I don’t often use a ridge filling base coat. 🤷‍♀️ 

Zoya Daisy - I meant to use a base color (white or silver), and next time I’ll remember to do that so I can stop at 2 coats. I can’t do thin coats of this one—they must be thick coats—and 3 thick Daisy coats are kinda hard to level out. This nail is also ridged, but it’s a bit harder to tell under all that Daisy. 😄 

Great Lakes Lacquer The Dancing Dragon - this is from a 2020 HHC order. It’s one of those “gotta see it in direct sunlight, from multiple angles, to fully appreciate all the sparkly color shifts” shades. It even has a purple shift I couldn't catch in my photo. I love this shade. Eh, I might be biased by the Avatar: The Last Airbender theme (and I’m still bummed that I missed out on the gorgeous fiery Agni Kai shade). Oh, and the rusty smudge on the outer edge of that nail is Kiko Sunset Copper: I accidentally brushed that nail against my right thumb while both nails were drying. 🤦‍♀️ 

Day 4 of manicure, right hand; my day 3 right-hand photos were all too dark. Tanzy and Gunter’s Get Down are 3 coats, all others are 2 coats.

Notes: 

Spoiler

Kiko Milano 211 Sunset Copper vs. Morgan Taylor Gunter’s Get Down vs. Zoya Tanzy - I wanted to see these against one another. Sunset Copper is a true copper penny shade. Tanzy is the sparkliest of these 3 and shifts a bit from copper to orangey gold, but it never gets as orange gold as Gunter’s Get Down. Tanzy's also the messiest to remove: glitter all over the place. But I love it anyway. It's one of my newest Zoyas. 

Live Love Polish Vaporize - one of my all-time favorite polishes, and I’m very tempted to buy a new Mooncat bottle just to have the better wider brush, even though my old LLP bottle’s still 3/4 full. That aqua > teal > green > gold > copper color shift is amazing in pretty much any kind of lighting. Vaporize is the epitome of “multichrome.” It’s also very easy to work with, even with LLP's stupidly skinny and short handled/stemmed brush. Maybe I'll reserve a Zoya Z-Wide brush just to use with this shade, though it'd be a pain to always thoroughly clean that brush and store it separately. 

China Glaze Solar Power - an old favorite that I recently repurchased. My photo doesn’t show any of the subtle shimmer. Also, I meant to put this over a base of white or silver but didn’t; you can see the resulting bare streaky patches on my pinky nail. “Why do you love Solar Power if it’s so streaky and temperamental?” Because once upon a long time ago, this was the best yellow polish I’d ever tried (which says a lot about other yellows circa 2012), and I’m a sentimental fool. 🤣 There are better behaving yellows nowadays, but Solar Power will always have a place in my heart. 

FYI, if you're curious about Kiko Milano's polishes: they sometimes have some shades on sale for $3-4 USD, and they're normally $6. I can only speak to the Power Pro Nail Lacquer (both original and "New" versions) line; I've never tried their other polish lines. But the Power Pros have a nice wide brush that makes up for the decorative removable cap and kinda short stem. I don't have many of these polishes, but I haven't been disappointed by the ones I've tried. 

[ather]

@WinglessOne  Loving your rainbow nails!! I love yellows. So those are my fav but also like tabatha it looks like such a perfect green. 

[WinglessOne]

@ather  Tabitha's such a solid performer, I used to travel with it even if I didn't plan on using green in my on-the-go manicures. The pearl finish gives it enough interest (to me) to stand out from other deep dark greens. And hooray for yellow polishes! They've come a long way. Some are still problematic, but not as much as yellows were back in the day. 😄 

[ather]

@WinglessOne  Yea I agree. I remember having an Essie yellow and it was terrible for performance. I have a china glaze one and I actually like it. Whites seem to give me such a hard time. I seem to only be drawn to the opaque ones. I need to get a more solid one. 

[WinglessOne]

@ather  White polishes are usually bad enough that I use them only as base colors for other light colors, like certain yellows. 😄 I did recently order a few Zoya whites during their "get 6 polishes free" sale; normally I might not have bothered. But I'm actually looking for a demi-sheer milky white for a specific mani idea, and I hope one of these newbies works out. 

And heh, I bet I know which Essie yellow you're talking about. I mean, I don't recall the shade name, but I do remember being frustrated enough to almost throw the bottle across the room. Essie has always been very hit or miss for me. I'm glad you've got at least one yellow that behaves well for you. I almost feel like everyone's polish collection should include "that one yellow that plays nice." 💛 

[CookieGirl1]

@WinglessOne Seabed is such a great, grungy color; I love it!

[WinglessOne]

@CookieGirl1  Right? If I didn't know I'm incapable of finishing a bottle of polish these days, I'd have bought 2 bottles of Pearly Seabed. 💚 

[CookieGirl1]

@WinglessOne I get it.  I've been sooooo tempted to buy backups of things (I accidentally bought a duplicate awhile back on two separate orders because clearly I liked it so much, lol) but as my polish collection grows it's a lot easier to talk myself out of doing that.

[Saradestin]

@WinglessOne So beautiful! So many different polishes and all so gorgeous! I love the color combination as well! Looking forward to seeing more and more!

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @Saradestin ! I don't often do a full hand of one shade unless it's one of my absolute favorite polishes. In fact, my next mani might be nothing but my favorite flaky ever because I miss wearing it. 😄 

[itsfi]

@WinglessOne, lovely colors! Great to hear you like Zoya Olivier! 💅 I've had that shade in and out of my shopping cart for the longest time - the shift on it is very pretty but I've wondered how it shows up in real life. Helpful to know that the shift comes through depending on the lighting. Speaking of shifts, the one in LLP's Vaporize is gorgeous! I only have a few polishes from them as LLP and have been meaning to take a look at Mooncat.

[WinglessOne]

@itsfi  Olivera is definitely very lighting (and angle) dependent. In most people's swatch photos and videos, the green shift is very strong—but you can't see it at all in my warm indoor lighting photo. Instead, you see most of the purple shift which some folks say they rarely get on their nails. 🤷‍♀️ If the current daylight wasn't so overcast, I'd take a few more photos at various angels to try to catch all the color shifts. If you buy Olivera, I hope you like it! 

I did a quick brush and bottle comparison of Mooncat vs. LLP somewhere in this thread... asking Google because it's better at finding things than BIC's search... ah, https://community.sephora.com/t5/Nailed-It/Show-Me-Your-Nails-2-0/m-p/6038572/highlight/true#M17604 

My Mooncats don't vary, formula-wise, from my LLPs—and I bought Mooncat shades I didn't already have from their LLP days. And of course, Mooncat has released new shades since the rebrand. There are a couple more I plan to buy if a good sale pops up. 

[Titian06]

@WinglessOne - OMGosh!  What gorgeous colors and styles!  I'm not even going to try to pick a favorite. 😄  Looking forward to more pics (I live vicariously through others). 💖💖💖

[WinglessOne]

Thank you @Titian06 ! 😊 

[RGbrown]

@WinglessOne 

Yay, I'm so happy to see you here! We always love more nails ❣️

I see some very lovely polishes, some of which I have, and some I don't, and I'm worried I'm gonna have to start making a list 🤣

I finally got enough wide Zoya brushes to replace every single one of mine recently, and I really wish I had taken a picture of the waste (it was around 100 all in one fell swoop). I so wish Zoya would just put a dummy screw top on their polishes like they do with the pump bottles of remover, and then give you the option to pick your brush at checkout. Sure, there'd still be that dummy to toss, but it would be so much less waste compared to a full brush and cap combo.

I keep a spare wide brush handy to use with polishes that have terrible brushes, but yup, I've found I hate cleaning it afterwards (fresh mani + acetone + my klutzy self = terrible idea 😋) and rarely use it. Glisten & Glow replacement brushes fit lots of polishes, and I'm tempted to go through my collection and see how many I could use and place an order at some point. There's a pretty nice reference list on reddit that covers a lot of the brands it'll work with: reddit dot com/r/RedditLaqueristas/comments/idilpl/list_of_polish_brands_compatible_with_glisten/

(Side note: KBShimmer sells the same brush G&G does. At one point it was cheaper there, not sure if it still is, but I find myself using "G&G brush" as interchangeable for both brands in my head.)

I've got a few Kikos too, and concur with your assessment...they are pretty dang nice, dependable across what I've tried, especially once you factor in the cost. I haven't tried the new Power Pro yet, but I've got old Power Pros, some Smart Fast Dry ones, and a few of their LE/holiday polishes from older collections. I tried to build a cart recently during one of their sales, but just couldn't justify picking up more when their offerings are fairly standard creams and shimmers I've already got multiple times over. If I ever come across anything unique enough to my collection though, I wouldn't hesitate to grab it based on my previous experience with them!

I'm scratching my head over Edyta; I just got it in my most recent haul and mine looks flat out bronze in the bottle, and my swatch stick pulls 'deep-champagne-slash-almost-gold in a black base', no hint of olive or anything else. I had to double check the website when it arrived, and while the swatch shots vary wildly on this one, it's still not quite what I expected. Will have to use it soon to see how it looks on the nail. 

[WinglessOne]

@RGbrown  Yeah, I'm about to call shenanigans on some people's Edyta photos. 🤣 I wanna know exactly what kind of rarely occurring lighting they were in when they took their photos of that polish looking as olive as Pearly Seabed. I mean, I've had this polish for a few years and it's never looked like that on my nails. Shenanigans! 

Something I've never tried is a matte top coat over Edyta. Might give that a shot and see what undertone(s) it brings out. I suspect it'll make Edyta look even more champagney, but I could be wrong. Anyway, I hope you end up liking it on your nails, even if it's not what you expected. I always say it's perfect for folks who want a "not another boring black polish" look. (I'm not saying black polish is boring; I spent most of high school and college with that stuff on my nails, and I still love it.) 

Thanks for the G&G brush compatibility list! That'll come in handy. I'll check KBShimmer for price comparison. Seeing China Glaze as a "yes" made my ears perk way up. Guess who's about to buy a whole bunch of non-Zoya replacement brushes? And YES, I also wish Zoya would offer a brush option for each polish. A dummy cap would be easier to recycle than a full brush, and it'd feel like less of a waste overall. Even if Zoya charged a bit extra for the wide brush option, I'd still rather have that option available than having to remove and clean the standard brush and buy a wide brush separately. Of the standard brushes I kept, I'll use some with mini polishes since those mini brushes can be a real pain to use. 

Also: yep, the reason I have so few Kikos (just 4 I think; I should double check) is the limited shade and finish range. Pearly Seabed was irresistible, but did I really need Sunset Copper? Eh... I'm glad I bought it but I probably have a dupe, in which case Sunset Copper might become a travel polish. At the low price I paid, I don't mind having a duplicate copper. Good to know the other Kiko polish lines are equally good. Just gotta wait for them to release something that catches my eye. 🙂 

[RGbrown]

@WinglessOne 

Just my China Glaze and OPI collections add up to a whopping 238 brushes. In the end, I wouldn't be surprised if I could use 400-500 total, which is why I keep putting off investigating the rest of my collection 😋

I think I have one extra around here somewhere...I need to see if it'll fit MT polishes, replace my few older ones that have the old brush 🤔

[RGbrown]

I've still got more polishes that I've neglected too long lined up for use soon, but couldn't resist the Morgan Taylor spring collection that recently arrived! 🌱🌸🌼

Swatch hand, pinky to thumb:

Pick Me Please is a classic baby pink. There's a blue shimmer in the bottle, but sadly it seems to disappear on the nail...I was hoping maybe it would peek out in full sun, but it's grey and rainy today, so no dice...I doubt it would anyways, as I can't see it even with a bright flashlight on it. This one was the fussiest of the bunch, a bit streaky. Not the worst I've used by any means, but it did take three coats to even it out. 

Bloom Service is a gorgeous dusty, green leaning teal, easily my favorite here. Super easy two coater, and unique to my collection.

Best Buds looks like a clear pale blue next to these shades, but next to other pale blues, the grey undertone is noticeable. Lovely shade, relatively easy two coats by being careful with the second (until I smudged it and needed a third 🤨)

I Lilac What I'm Seeing is a gorgeous dusty lavender cream. Easy two coater.

Plant One On Me is a medium coral/salmon pink, closer to a crelly in formula, a touch sheer, with three coats needed for full opacity (not fussy or streaky though). Bright but not overwhelmingly so, somewhere between the dusty pink of the jumbo erasers of our childhood and the screaming bright pink of bubblegum, it feels like a grown up pink, a more sophisticated shade that stays in "office appropriate" territory while also giving off a fun vibe.

And the artsy hand, where I absolutely had to play with the sheer sparkle of Feeling Fleur-ty! This is a bright pink in the bottle, and as someone who has never used Dior Nail Glow, I can only imagine the base for each of these is extremely similar, providing just a hint of brightening. MT took that concept to a different level though, by adding a pinch of shimmer and a sprinkle of iridescent flakies to really give this a subtle sparkle that is dainty but oh so fun. I'm getting more enchanted with negative space designs lately, and while it's not something I'll be able to do on most of my nails, the two I wear GelieCure on are relatively unstained, so I went with Feeling Fleur-ty as a base with some asymmetrical french tips to showcase it alone, then used it as a topper on the rest of my nails. It's not the level of sparkle I usually go for, but it is so very pretty, light and delicate, perfect for spring.

 

[ather]

@RGbrown  Loving the artsy hand. I always wanted to pick up the dior glow but never did. I think the added touch of sparkles is way better. Adds that little extra that makes it look so good!! 

[RGbrown]

@ather 

Yes, it's subtle, but still fun! ✨ Thanks so much!!

[itsfi]

@RGbrown, I hope your artsy hand has a commission agreement in place. I'm picking up this entire MT collection once this no buy is over. 💅 🛍🛒 I don't usually get super excited about pastel polishes, but there's something about these shades that are making me change my tune - maybe the bit of smokiness to a few of them?! I love the pairing with Feeling Fleur-ty. It's all so pretty!! 😍 Just counting down the days at this point . . . 📆